Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 9): September Read online

  “This is the effect a mere fifteen minutes after suffering initial contact with teeth and saliva. We’re still uncertain as to which actually contains the contaminant.” She removed the plastic sheeting from the medical gurney upon which the doctor lay. His arm was a mess, the initial wound seemed almost to have healed, though the colour of the skin was a bright, infected reddish purple nearest the wound, fading swiftly to grey as it went. His eyes had turned a sallow yellow. The left bulged in an unsightly fashion. “We have discovered that they require the same treatment as the Dead, that being their brains must be destroyed. Decapitation works as well, and in this case will not result in an active cranium.” She nodded to me. In one swift motion, the unfortunate doctor lost his head to my blade. “The other thing that we have learned is this; the serum that works as a vaccine against Dead infection is completely useless in the case of a Ghoul bite. There is some conjecture, in fact, that it may hasten the process.”

  I don’t think anyone was expecting to witness a decapitation this early in the morning, or else they might not have eaten, and consequently lost, their breakfasts. Oh well, the room was going to need a thorough scrubbing anyway. Once the situation had calmed itself somewhat, and the secondary vomiters had finished, German Doctor continued. “The blood, though corrosive and unpleasant, does not seem to be toxic in itself. It will hurt when you are bled upon, but there will be no other effects than the corrosive ones. I would still advise avoiding eye contact where possible, naturally, and in fact try to avoid it as much as you can. The substance is rather painful.” She raised her right hand, spots of red clearly visible where she had been exposed to small amounts of Ghoul blood. Everyone in the room hissed an intake of breath in sympathy in unison.

  German Doctor wrapped up the briefing then, asking me to stay behind for a moment. “I understand that your group brought these in. Next time you might want to make sure that they are all dead. We had to put three of them down in the lab.” She bobbed her ponytail in her departed, decapitated companion’s direction. “He wasn’t the only one we lost last night.” Her look told me that it was all due to my own incompetence. I nodded, saying that now we know, we will only be bringing back dead ones. She nodded her head once, then spun around on her heel and marched off, back towards the medical labs.

  Apprentice, whom I hadn’t even noticed until now, strode forward, slowly clapping. “Good job, mate. You’re about the only one to stand up to her glare and not wilt under it. Nobody really likes her in the labs, but by buggery we do what she tells us to do.” Her wry grin slowly faded. “Unfortunately I could only help one person at a time. I chose her. It took a lot more out of me than a simple Dead bite, even with what you went through with Disciple. We have to put a stop to these Righteous.” With no further word Apprentice left me to my own thoughts.

  noon

  One unfortunate part of leading a squad of soldiers, enforcing discipline. Maori and Wall had disobeyed orders to run off and sign up with a pack of Ghouls. This was not necessarily something that I would ordinarily overlook, and I told them as much. They both had the decency to look ashamed about the whole situation, neither offering anything as an excuse other than “I’m sorry, sir, I fucked up.” Yes, yes they had indeed. So, after a couple of hours of me screaming at the top of my lungs, I told them that this sort of shit had better not happen again, that I’d keep my eye on the pair of them, and that we would never have this sort of discussion again.

  After that debacle, I headed off to the mess hall for a late lunch. Apocalypse Girl had already agreed to meet me there, her mother hovering uncomfortably close. This gave me an opportunity to tell The Boss that I had made contact with Fluffy and relay the conditions of any meeting with it. She also reiterated the importance of discovering where these Righteous Ghouls hung their proverbial hats, then bemoaned the lack of intel regarding the Terraformers. We were well enough able to look at their shiny new base over what remained of Sydney, but we had nothing solid. She was both pleased and irate that I had enlisted the aid of The Puller. Pleased that we might actually receive some information that we might be able to utilise, irate because she didn’t really want anybody other than those that needed to know involved with either the Terraformers or Mutators.

  evening

  The three of us watched the sun descend into the west from the top of Ayer’s Rock in silence. Apocalypse Mum was pretty insistent that the meeting with Fluffy happen tonight, and wanted me to make certain that it happened. When I brought out the radio and began scanning the frequencies that the schrandfelths had given me, Apocalypse Girl put her arm around me. Her mother was more interested in the radio than in glaring at her daughter’s display. Granted it was something that Smart Guy had cobbled together, several months ago now, that he claimed to be able to reach Jupiter easily enough.

  Fluffy replied soon enough, though it was loath to meet so soon, it almost immediately appeared once I requested his presence. The Boss was taken aback by her first encounter with an extraterrestrial, approaching it cautiously. When Fluffy extended a hand in greetings she grasped and shook it with almost no hesitation.

  “Welcome to Earth,” She began, her voice somewhat shaky. Fluffy smiled through the fuzz surrounding its mouth. “According to my daughter and her… companion… your species is one of three…?” Fluffy agreed with her. “Is there anything that you can tell me about the other two?”

  “Indeed. Not a lot, but I can tell you a few things. I have been investigating things since meeting your family, and learned a couple of interesting points.” Fluffy emitted a smell that reminded me a little of vanilla. I think it might have farted, judging from the expression on its face. Not that it was easy to read a schrandfelths, not in the slightest.

  “Anything that you can help with would be most welcome,” Apocalypse Mum told it. “And if you have any technology that we might be able to use that you feel you are able to give us, even just lend us…”

  “NO!” Fluffy almost shouted. “I will not give you technology that your species is unready for, besides our species has nothing that you might even want. It is all designed for planetary exploration and sanitation. Some mining tools. I cannot offer you our teleport technology either, as it is not ours to give. It belongs to the Highest.”

  “Who, or what, is the Highest?” Apocalypse Girl wanted to know.

  “It is a being of unsurpassed power, my friend. It rules the Hierarchy under which we schrandfelths merely serve. Even those that you call Terraformers and Mutators are servant to the Will of the Highest.” Fluffy sounded almost as if it was educating a small child of something obvious, like the sun being yellow. “What I can offer is this, your species is clearly more resilient than other examples of humanity that we have encountered throughout the cosmos. This means that there are far more of you surviving this mess with the Dead than anybody expected. On any other world we would have seen you wiped out entirely by now, but here, on this Earth of yours… it may be that an appeal to the Highest would result in it declaring the Earth a sanctuary for your kind. I will investigate this avenue further for you. It is the least I can do for those that saved my life.” It smiled at Apocalypse Girl and myself, bade us farewell, and vanished into nothingness as The Boss was about to speak.

  “So now we must rely on alien politics?” Apocalypse Mum did not look remotely happy about the prospect. “And what was it talking about, humanity on other worlds?”

  I told her that we’d find out all of these things, in time. Surely, we will.

  September 10th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  Sleep and I were not friendly last night. I kept having visions of schrandfelths and Terraformers swarming all over the place, invading AR-18, nightmares that I could not wake from. The screaming of terrified technicians haunted me until Apocalypse Dog began licking my face. In fright, I threw the poor mutt from the bed, waking Apocalypse Girl. She was not amused.

  My squad awaited in the mess hall, already suited up and ready for action. This tim
e we were to meet the Mech-Techs from Melbourne, guiding them the last fifty or so kilometres through the wastes surrounding our base. Viking looked pleased that we would be meeting up with his friends, and I confess to feeling happy about seeing Stutter and Nutter once again.

  On the way up to the helipad, in the elevator, the pilot asked me what, if anything, he should keep an eye open for. I told him that he would likely see a large contingent of strange vehicles, many modifications designed for surviving the wasteland that Australia had become. As I spoke, the pilot noticed a massive cloud of dust to the south of us, turned that way without a word.

  noon

  The Mech-Techs had outdone themselves this time. Stutter and Nutter stood proudly at the base of an escalator that led up to the control station of what could only be described as The Elephant, an enormous conglomeration of assorted vehicular flotsam and jetsam that was essentially a small mobile city. The base of the beast was liberally coated in the remains of Dead that had been between Melbourne and us. The tank treads on the four base legs tore up any asphalt that they encountered, but Dead flesh simply turned to soup as The Elephant passed over them. The escalator served as the vehicular monstrosity’s trunk.

  Maori and Giant stood and stared from the base for a moment as the rest of us ascended, then they began to move. The top of this damned thing felt uncomfortably high, then Nutter opened up a door for us and we were inside what had the feel of an old ship captain’s cabin. I said as much to the two Mech-Tech engineering geniuses and they blushed, Stutter eventually pointing out that had been their original intention.

  Before long we were on our way back to the north. The six of us in my squad stayed in the cabin for the most part, though Viking and I went up front, standing between the solar panel ‘ears’ on either side of The Elephant’s head, to share a joint that one of his crew had passed to him on our way up. For such a large vehicle, and for being so high up on the damned thing, it was quite a smooth ride. Stutter and Nutter had definitely done well this time.

  evening

  Giant and Wall were arguing about whether we should incorporate The Mech-Techs into the AR-18 facility a couple of hours after Nutter called us down to dinner. He had, naturally, dreamed that this kind of vehicle was going to be needed at some stage, also that he and Stutter would be needed, as with all the rest of their group, and we discussed it at length as we ate. Giant wanted to keep as many people as was possible out of AR-18, where Wall saw incredible value in the creations that the pair of them had designed, especially when I told them of The Nightmare and The Tortoise.

  In the end, though, Viking shut them both up by reminding them that it was The Boss’s decision in the end, but that he’d be formally applying for asylum on behalf of the entire group as soon as we get back to base. In any case, surely they could use several dozen assorted mechanics, engineers and technicians. That put an end to the discussion.

  September 11th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  The Elephant was almost painfully slow, lumbering along the land on either side of the road like its namesake. At this rate we might make it back home by tomorrow evening, not that I minded particularly, it was good to catch up with Stutter and Nutter, not to mention the rest of the Mech-Techs that we had left behind in Melbourne, many months ago.

  The wind held a chill, a leftover from the Winter, that seeped into my bones as I stood at the helm. The Elephant was set up like an old sailing ship, a galleon perhaps, with the helm at the back, above the Captain’s cabin. There were cameras everywhere, a bank of monitors that showed everything around The Elephant, near and far, high and low. Stutter, when he chewed the words out, told me that the height had been necessary to avoid Dingo attacks, the monitors needed to see terrain as well as the inevitable hordes of the Dead.

  Maori and Wall alternated with Giant and Scar scouting on motorbikes that had been stashed in a mobile garage that occupied the majority of the bulk of The Elephant. There were a fair few miscellaneous vehicles used for various forms of scouting inhabiting the garage, not to mention a couple of Utes for foraging. The Elephant was basically a small, mobile city, made by Mech-Techs entirely for Mech-Techs. Mutter made it clear that he and his comrade had known that Viking needed not just an exceptional vehicle, but the entire group as well.

  noon

  I felt strange, this high off the ground, so I spent most of my time in the Captain’s cabin with Viking. The rest of the squad hadn’t found anything remotely interesting, just a few smaller Dingo packs and a couple of groups of the Dead. The former they exterminated with prejudice, the latter they exterminated out of disgust and necessity.

  Static, the Mech-Techs radio operator, had noted some strange reports south of Adelaide, some of the smaller settlements that The Queen had dealings with had simply vanished, completely and utterly. The people had just disappeared, nothing but blood left behind. She noted also that there were similar reports from settlements to the far west.

  The radio network had expanded, now covering almost the entirety of the coastline of Australia, as well as several of the more prominent inland locations, and news was flooding in daily. Static had her hands full regulating the flow of information, but seemed to be thriving under the circumstances.

  Static took me aside at one point, telling me that Ginger had been in contact, leaving a couple of messages for Scout and myself. No doubt he was wanting Scout to at least report in, if not return home by now. In any case, I felt Static should deliver that one personally upon our arrival at AR-18. So, I asked for my message.

  “Ok, you might think this one is a bit strange, I certainly did…” Static seemed almost sheepish in her desire to not deliver the message. A moment later she took a deep breath and continued. “There have been Dead rocking up at Coober’s Nest, right? Naked Dead. Apparently in the thousands. Ginger reckons that they’re coming from the northwest, maybe from somewhere in the desert, who the fuck knows, and then wandering off to the south. Anyway, he wanted you to know about it. Apparently he thinks you’re some kind of problem solver.”

  Ginger would not have been the first to call me that. Ironically, before the Apocalypse, my life had been in shambles. Now, it seemed, I had purpose. Or at least, someone that needs me to look after her. I’m going to admit it, right here. I’m only here for Apocalypse Girl and that baby of ours. The only reason I can think of for helping someone else is so that they help us in return. So far, this has been fairly consistent. Only The Queen, in Adelaide, had felt differently. Had she not been quite so radical in looking out for her own settlement, I think we might still be there, to be honest.

  evening

  I thought long and hard about Ginger’s news of naked Dead folk wandering around the Nest. They must have been drawn there by the noise, then finding nothing and nobody to eat I assume they wandered off to the next possible location. Still, what kind of insanity results in thousands of naked Dead people wandering around together?

  Discussing the matter with Viking and Giant, we decided that we’d take a brief detour, head to the west a ways and sent out some scouts. The enormous blonde man gave the command, and The Elephant swung around slowly to the west. The Captain’s Cabin seemed a little lop-sided for a moment as first one, then the other ‘foot’ went over a raised section of terrain, a small hill or pile of rocks most likely.

  I radioed AR-18, telling them that there would be a delay, asking to speak to Apocalypse Girl. Her voice sounded a little strained, and perhaps a little hoarse as she asked if everything was alright. I told her about the message from Ginger, that we’d be checking it out, and that she’d practically shit herself when she saw what Stutter and Nutter came up with this time. I heard a loud, excited bark as I spoke. We allowed a few minutes for personal talk, then I signed off and walked out onto the main deck.

  It was really difficult not to think of this beast as a sort of land-ship. The escalator that we rode up to the deck folds up neatly whenever The Elephant is in motion, for practicality’s sake, as o
therwise the technologically mastodonic trunk would prove an awful impediment. The Mech-Techs truly had outdone themselves.

  September 12th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  I dreamed of Elder last night, an odd dream, but then he had been an odd individual. He kept saying that I needed to see, that I needed to know. However, when I asked him what I needed to know, he simply smiled at me in silence as his head slid from his severed neck. Every time this happened I would wake in a cold sweat, only to doze off back into the same fucking dream, every fucking time.

  Was this a message from beyond the grave? Was it just my own mind trying to resurrect the ghosts of my past? Elder had been a friend, certainly, though I had known him only a short time. To have been the one responsible for executing the poor old dude… That had been a waking nightmare just by itself. Maybe it was just my subconscious expressing guilt… Fuck knows.

  The Elephant kept lumbering along to the west, Static keeping an ear to the radio and an eye on the multitudinous screens in the cockpit. Driver operated mainly by compass, Static occasionally barking out instructions, such as “Avoid the big-arse rock to the left,” or “Watch out for that tree,” but The Elephant was able to pretty much flatten almost anything in its path.